Boris Johnson told the Covid inquiry that he assumed Rishi Sunak’s “dining out to help out” hospitality scheme had been approved by government scientists and was surprised to learn later that it had not.
In evidence that could pose significant problems for Sunak when he appears before the inquiry on Monday, Johnson said it would have been “normal” for advisers such as Chris Whitty and Patrick Vallance to have been informed, and he assumed that was the case.
Johnson denied that his government shut down too late in the spring and fall of 2020, saying other measures were already in place and that “new variants of Covid were not budgeted for”.
Asked about Sunak’s scheme, which subsidized people to eat in person at restaurants and cafes, Johnson said the plan was “within the risk budget” given lower infection rates that summer.
“When it was pitched to me, it wasn’t pitched to me as an acceleration, but something to make sense of the freedoms we’ve already given,” he said.
Earlier evidence revealed that the scheme was not discussed with scientific advisers in advance, and that even Matt Hancock, then the health secretary, only learned about it on the day it was presented to the cabinet. Chris Whitty, the chief medical officer for England, refer to the scheme later as “eating out to help the virus”.
Asked by Hugo Keith KC, the inquiry barrister, Johnson said he thought Whitty and Vallance, the government’s chief scientific adviser, “must have” known about the scheme.
“I’m pretty confident that it was discussed several times in meetings that I believe they should have been in,” Johnson said. “I don’t understand how something as well published as this could be smuggled past the scientific advice – I don’t see how it could have happened.”
When Keith pointed out that Johnson had even said in his witness statement to the inquiry that he assumed the scheme had been discussed with Vallance and Whitty, the former prime minister replied: “I said that in my statement because I honestly assumed it was should have been. discussed with them. And I’m confused as to how something as important as this could have gotten through.”
Johnson’s testimony states even more pressure on Sunakwho is confirmed to testify for the inquiry on Monday.
Earlier evidence was given that the £850m dining out to help scheme was introduced without any consultation, Vallance and others leave “blind side”.
Sunak will face questions about why he said in his own witness statement, a brief extract of which was read out by Keith during earlier evidence: “I don’t recall any concerns about the scheme being raised during ministerial discussions, including those attended is through the CMO [Whitty] and CSA [Vallance].”
During his testimony, Vallance politely but firmly contradicted this, saying he would have been “very surprised” if Sunak had not known about scientific concerns.
Sunak has been more widely held up as proof that he is too gung-ho about opening up the economy, along with another senior scientist referred to him in a disparaging message at the time as “Dr Death the Chancellor”.
